Open Line Faculty-Staff Newsletter for the Week of Sept. 13, 2013

Campus News

Yearlong Caribbean Writer Series begins Sept. 16Author Tiphanie Yanique opens the series The Caribbean Writer: Identity, Immigration, and Art, presented by the African American Studies Program, with a free, public talk Monday, Sept. 16. The talk, "Those Who Wait for Us," will take place in Rasmussen Rotunda, WSC, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The series features writers from Haiti, Trinidad, Jamaica, and the Virgin Islands—areas that have each had unique encounters with colonialism, slavery, tourism, and multiculturalism. Upcoming speakers include performance artist and poet Janelle Gordon ’05 in October, and poet and educator Gregory Wilson in November.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz will deliver fall Pierce Lecture Sept. 17Best known for his short story collections Drown and This is How You Lose Her (a New York Times best-seller and National Book Award finalist), and the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, Domincan-American author Junot Díaz will deliver the fall fall Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts on Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 8 p.m., in Schneebeck Concert Hall. Admission to the lecture is free for faculty and staff members. Complimentary tickets are available at Wheelock Info Center or tickets.pugetsound.edu.

Prof. Gwynne Brown receives 2013 President's Excellence in Teaching AwardEstablished in 1997 to recognize faculty members who demonstrate exceptional teaching skills independent of accomplishments in scholarship, research, or publication, the President's Excellence in Teaching Award is awarded each year to a faculty member with a genuine passion for teaching; an ability to inspire students to learn; a capacity to challenge students and motivate them through high expectations; a respect for students as individuals; and an enduring intellectual curiosity and capacity for growth, change, and vitality. At the Fall Faculty Dinner last month, President Ron Thomas named Associate Professor of Music Gwynne Brown the 16th recipient of the President's Excellence in Teaching Award. Congratulations!

Four named distinguished professorsAt the Fall Faculty Dinner four members of Puget Sound's senior faculty were bestowed the title of "distinguished professor," identified by the Faculty Advancement Committee for high accomplishment in teaching, scholarship, and service. Congratulations to 2013's distinguished professors:

Geoffrey Block, School of Music

Pepa Lago Grana, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature

Paul Loeb, Department of Philosophy

John Woodward, School of Education

Leslie Saucedo receives Phibbs AwardCongratulations to Professor of Biology Leslie Saucedo, selected by the University Enrichment Committee as the 30th recipient of the Dirk Andrew Phibbs Award. Saucedo's research focuses on a gene that encodes the Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver 1 (PRL-1) protein, and her work has direct implications for researchers' understanding of cancer. Earlier this year a study about PRL-1 co-authored by Saucedo was published in the leading science journal PLOS ONE.

Website redesign previews and CMS overview sessions begin Sept. 16As part of Puget Sound's branding initiative, the university website is being redesigned to help us better tell the Puget Sound story. The new design is scheduled to go live later this fall, but you can get a preview now! Redesign previews will be held in Rausch Auditorium, McIntyre Hall, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2–3 p.m., and Thursday, Sept. 19, 10–11 a.m.

As work on the redesign moves forward, updates continue to be made to content on the current site. If you're a CMS user or have a new staff member in your area who needs training on the CMS, several sessions are scheduled for September. All session will be held in the human resources conference room, in Howarth Hall.

Monday, Sept. 16, 3–4:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 18, 3–4:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 20, 10–11:30 am.

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 3–4:30 p.m.

If you have questions about the website redesign or CMS overview sessions, contact Web Manager Barbara Weist at bweist@pugetsound.edu.

Professor Mark Martin to discuss the microbial world we live in at Daedalus Dinner—reservations due Sept. 23The first Daedalus Dinner of the fall will be held on Monday, Sept. 30 at 6 p.m., in Murray Board Room, WSC. In this talk Mark Martin, associate professor of biology, will discuss how members of the microbial world (commonly called “germs”) receive relentlessly negative publicity, and are associated with disease and corruption in the minds of many nonmicrobiologists. A self-admitted “microbial supremacist” inside and outside of the classroom, Martin will demonstrate the essential role that bacteria and archaea play in the world around us—and even within us.

Established in the 1970s, Daedalus Dinners cover a wide range of programs and topics, and are open to all faculty and staff members, who are encouraged to bring interested students as their guests. Four times each year, the Puget Sound Daedalus Society sponsors an evening of scholarship, debate, and dinner. The evening begins with wine and hors d'oeuvres, followed by the featured presentation, a catered buffet dinner, coffee, dessert, and discussion. Reservations are $15 per person, made on a first-come, first-served basis, and must be made by Monday, Sept. 23. Contact x3207 for more information or to make a reservation.

Michel Rocchi International District honors professor's commitment to academic-residential programsOn Sept. 5, in recognition of his careerlong contribution to academic-residential learning at Puget Sound, the first academic-residential program in Commencement Hall was dedicated the Michel Rocchi International District. Rocchi was part of the faculty team that created the Living Learning Program at Puget Sound in 1973, a residential, team-taught, interdisciplinary initiative for which he served as director. In the mid-1970s, he created the Language House program, an academic-residental house that was the the precursor to one of Puget Sound's most successful living-learning environments: the theme houses. More recently Rocchi helped envision the International District "house" in Commencement Hall, and his experience and input influenced numerous features of the building. Throughout his career Rocchi has provided hundreds of students with living and learning experiences that have enabled and continue to enable them to more fully recognize their potential as global citizens and leaders—something at the heart of a Puget Sound education. Congratulations, Michel!

Photographs of Qatar open semester at Kittredge GalleryLandscape and Transformation by photographer Kristin Giordano opens the academic year at Kittredge Gallery. Meditations on space, place, and the poetics of change, the exhibit includes images from three series collected between 2008 and 2010, when Giordano lived and worked in Doha, Qatar, on the Arabian Peninsula. The exhibit runs through Sept. 28.

Schedule your personal TIAA-CREF counseling session todayAndrew Martinez and Tanya Willoughby, consultants with TIAA-CREF, will be on campus Sept. 17 and 18 to answer questions about saving for retirement. Matinez and Willoughby will help you determine long-term strategies, find the right allocation mix, and develop your own strategies for retirement savings. Individual sessions will be held in Wyatt 226, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. To schedule your appointment, call 866.928.4221 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or schedule online at www.tiaa-cref.org/ScheduleNow. TIAA-CREF consultants will also be on campus Oct. 23 and 24, and Nov. 12 and 13.

Washington Supreme Court to hear cases, host discussion on campusThe state's highest court will hold public hearings of three cases on campus Thursday, Sept. 19. The cases are being heard at Puget Sound as part of the "traveling court" initiative, which offers the community an opportunity to observe the justice system in action. The hearings will be held in two sessions in Schneebeck Concert Hall: Session 1 (9–11:45 a.m.) and Session II (1:30–2:30 p.m.). In addition to the hearings, several of the justices will participate in a panel discussion on "Legal Issues in Diversity" on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 1 p.m., in Schneebeck Concert Hall. Tickets to the panel discussion are free, but required, and are available at Wheelock Info Center or online at tickets.pugetsound.edu.

Library hosts traveling art exhibit paying homage to Iraqi artists, poets, authorsAl-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here is an exhibition of some 200 handmade artists' books and single-sheet broadsides created by artist Baeu Beausoleil and scholar Sarah Bodman in response to the March 5, 2007, carbomb that exploded on Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad's literary and intellectual center. The traveling show on display in Collins Memorial Library includes more than 50 works from the original collection, and will be open through Oct. 31. In October Beausoleil and Seattle artist Carletta Carrington Wilson will be in attendance to give artist talks. For details read the exhibit press release.

Changes to Pierce Transit routes may affect Puget Sound commutersSignificant service cuts to Pierce Transit routes will occur on Sept. 29 that may impact Puget Sound faculty, staff, and students. Pierce Transit currently operates at 417,000 annual service hours. Once the service reduction plan is implemented at the end of September, Pierce Transit will operate approximately 300,000 annual hours, a 28 percent reduction. Detailed route-by-route information is available on the Pierce Transit website or by calling Pierce Transit Customer Service at 253.581.8000.

Andrew Gardner, associate professor of sociology and anthropology, was quoted in the September edition of International Educator, in a feature about universities’ efforts to prevent human trafficking. The magazine is published by the Association of International Educators. (Click on “Stop Traffic!” and scroll to page 9.)

Robin Jacobson, associate professor of politics and government, wrote a News Tribune opinion piece advocating immigration legislation that supports alternatives to the detention of individuals.

Sign up to receive "In the News," a weekly digest of Puget Sound press coverage, by contacting our media relations office at mediarelations@pugetsound.edu or x2611.

The Sixth Annual AHSS Symposium, featuring the work of summer research scholars, will be held in Collins Memorial Library on Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The symposium is an informal event with light refreshments offering students an opportunity to share their research and talk with attendees about their projects.

In fall 2015 members of the faculty will accompany students on a "Southwest Semester." The integrated four-unit program will meet a variety of geology, environmental policy and decision making, and university core requirements, and will take students on a tour through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. Please encourage students who may be interested in the program to attend an interest meeting Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m., in Thompson 115.

“Ski Level to Sea Level: Understanding Environmental Issues in Our Watersheds” is being offered for a third year by the Puget Sound’s Sound Policy Institute. The courses run over two weekends, Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, Sept. 13–15, and Sept. 27–29, and include visits to Mount Rainier, Alder and Mud Mountain dams, and Eatonville rain gardens; a boat tour of Commencement Bay; and talks by environmental leaders. Those interested can participate in one or both weekends. To enroll or for more information, contact Katharine Appleyard at x3716 or kappleyard@pugetsound.edu.

Fall Kindermusik classes, offered by the Community Music Department, introduce young children to music through four different, age-appropriate courses, including "Wiggles and Giggles" (ages 18 mo.–3 years), "See What I Saw" (ages 3–4), and various sections of "Kindermusik for the Young Child" for ages 4–6 and 5–7. Download and complete the registration form or contact community music at x3575 for more information. The registration deadline is Sept. 20.

The Department of Human Resources will host a "Root Beer Float Celebration" on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., in the HR offices in Howarth 106. All faculty and staff members are invited to join the department for a tasty treat, a meet-n-greet, and a fun kickoff for the fall semester.

The annual faculty and staff benefits fair will be held in Wheelock Student Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, from 7 a.m. to noon. Stay tuned... The Department of Human Resources will provide more information about the event later this fall. Watch Open Line and your email!